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Tag: faith

November 27, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

There’s a lot to be said in terms of this era of the internet in which we live. Information, communication, and interaction globally is literally at our fingertips, our computers and smartphones connecting us instantly to the world. Indeed no generation in history has been so connected.

The downside, of course, is that we’re also connected with a world in chaos with war, famine, and sorrow on sorrow. Little wonder we sometimes lie awake at night praying for peace.

I often turn to the Psalms where King David, who authored many of them, reached out to the Lord for comfort. Psalm 91 is one of my favorites:

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.’
Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with his feathers and under his wings you shall take refuge; his truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.”

These words are comfort in difficult days no?

October 30, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

I think most of us have read of remarkable people who have accomplished a lot in the face of adversity. Usually that adversity is from without. But there are those who have battled challenges from both without and within.

I blogged last time about the adversity our WOW champions are facing in South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and India. Drought in Africa, floods in India, food insecurity, disease, and huge gaps in the electrical grid in Zambia and Malawi, and on and on. All adversities from without.

But one of our champions is facing chronic adversity from within. He has come close to death twice in the last three years from major surgeries and massive blood clots, all the while suffering a tumour on his spine. He is in pain all the time.

Nevertheless he soldiers on, ministering to severely abused and abandoned orphans and providing care to 3000 desperately impoverished households. He oversees a paid and volunteer staff of 30 even as he gives loving time and care to his young family. He doesn’t complain. I’ve never heard him demand anything. He just trusts and obeys the Lord.

I’ve told him he reminds me of great saints of God who had every reason to yield to their afflictions but chose to stay faithful. They’re the subject of many books and even the occasional movie. We admire them. They are heroes.

I’m humbled by the calling, character, and tenacity of this WOW champion. He’s one of the key reasons I do my best to raise awareness and funding for WOW.

We’re working with saints.

September 18, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

There’s no need to recount the plethora of environmental, political, and war zone crises facing us in 2024. You’re as up-to-date as I am and no doubt just as concerned. Indeed there’s more than a case for despair.

And like me, you may be in need of a word from the Lord.

“The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:28-31).

August 21, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

St.Paul, who wrote several letters to churches he planted and to young leaders he appointed to pastor them, had two key messages that have stood the test of time. The foremost of the two was his gospel (in four points):

  1. Christ died
  2. Christ was buried
  3. Christ rose from the dead
  4. He appeared to many witnesses.

His 15th chapter of the first letter of Corinthians stresses the resurrection, “if Christ be not risen our faith is in vain”. Indeed, Christian faith is rooted in history. The tomb is empty.

The second was his quotation from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk 2:4, “the just shall live by faith”. Paul would have read this in the Hebrew as, “the just (or righteous) shall live by his faithfulness”. This is a powerful spiritual principle as well as a profound life lesson.

The word faithful in Hebrew is emunah. Like most Hebrew nouns it has an accompanying visual image which, in this case, denotes a strong male adult holding a helpless infant. He will not let the little one fall. So when the Bible refers to God as faithful that imagery provides hope and security.

And when “faithful” is applied to us it means we continually “show up for work” and stick to it regardless of how tired, bored, or discouraged we may be that day.

Faithfulness is the key building block for a life of meaning. It’s the one thing the Lord cannot resist. All He can do with faithfulness is bless it.

July 24, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

“God or luck”, as former president Donald Trump put it, saved him from an assassin’s bullet in Pennsylvania on July 13th. God or luck.

Not being an American nor a registered voter for either right or left-leaning parties, I’m not interested in political bias. What I am interested in is the “God or luck” polarity that is so reflective of our culture. At the risk of sounding like a theologian, I must say there’s a huge gap between God and luck.

God is a person, luck is not. God is holy, omniscient, omnipresent, sovereign and provident. He is creator of all that is. He is just and, most vital of all, loving.

Luck, of course, has none of those attributes. Indeed, luck at best is random and totally untrustworthy. One can only credit luck after the fact whereas God is “the same yesterday, today, and forever”.

The founders of America were very wise when they built the new nation on the foundational statement, ”In God we trust”. Building a nation or a life on luck is like building a house on sand.

 

 

July 10, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

According to a recent report, our world appears to be drowning in debt to the tune of 90 trillion(!) dollars. This amounts to 90% of the world economy. Economists are warning us that the day of reckoning is near. A global financial collapse will impact us all.

There have always been doom and gloom reports, however. The “Henny Pennys” are always raising the alarm with their bleak theories. But, this seems to be different. Actual dollars eclipse the “possibilities” and even “probabilities” of theoretical economic science. At some point soon our world will have to “pay the piper”.

If and when that day comes, I think we have something to learn from our African orphans and widows who are living every day in abject poverty. Whenever we’re with them in Zambia, Malawi, and South Africa, we find them grateful and rejoicing in their humble state. They live from day to day with gratitude to the Lord for his presence and provision. WOW, of course, is a player in that provision, but we see ourselves as small participants in the hands and feet of Jesus reaching out to “the least of these”.

We often wonder who is blessing whom. We visit them to lift their spirits but find that it is they who are lifting ours. Maybe they know something that comes only by total dependence on the Lord. It’s the blessing of thankfulness for “daily bread”, rather like a child who is cared for by its parents. Indeed it’s called “child-likeness”.

It may very well be that our world will experience economic collapse in our lifetime. If it does, we may find a silver lining in that dark cloud: the blessing of rediscovering childish dependence. And no one knows joy like a child.

June 5, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

I saw a commercial the other day retailing a certain investment company whose tag line was,” A life well planned”. An appeal to our need for security and control always resonates. Yet…

How often “the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft a-gley”, as the famous Scottish poet Robbie Burns wrote. Our strategies and intentions are so easily eclipsed by random events. Especially these days with so many international conflicts, environmental disasters, and volatile politics we can rightly feel our whole world is anything but “well planned”.

The only comfort for men and women of faith is our trust in an omniscient, sovereign, and provident Heavenly Father. He is, and has always been, in control. Sometimes we may think we’d do a better job of it but our theology assures us that there are no surprises for Him, He is firmly “at the wheel”, and He is our proven “help in ages past and hope for years to come”(as Isaac Watts’ old hymn puts it).

That hymn goes on to refer to God as “our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home”. And, if ever in recent history we’ve been “blasted” by world events, it is now.

It’s true “we walk by faith and not by sight”. But that walk is predicated on an empty tomb and the sure and certain hope that the Lord is/will be true to His word that “He will never leave nor forsake us”. So we pray that His will be done, and we rest secure in hope.

 

May 23, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

We’ve all read the report on the sudden descent of a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore with one person dead and scores injured in the sudden fall. Apparently it hit turbulence and fell 6000 feet in a matter of minutes. People who were not wearing seatbelts were thrown all over the interior with many hitting the ceiling with their heads. Some of the most seriously injured were attendants standing in the aisles serving breakfast to the passengers. Fortunately the pilots were able to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.

For those who fly, this event is disturbing to say the least. Indeed it’s a cautionary tale about our universal vulnerability. Whether an air disaster, a sudden traffic accident, or a report from the doctor that a test has revealed a fatal disease, we are all subject to the seeming randomness of tragedy.

Nevertheless we still fly, drive, and live our lives with the belief that “it won’t happen to me”. The alternative, of course, is the “Henny Penny” view (Google it) that “the sky is falling” with its concomitant daily anxiety.

I think Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount should be not only considered but adopted: “Think not what the morrow bringeth. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”. Worry is counterproductive. Why borrow trouble from the future?

I often think of the old man lying in his death bed who told his pastor “90 percent of everything I worried about never happened”. So true.

Burying one’s head in the sand, like the proverbial ostrich, is to be avoided as is staying indoors for the rest of our lives. Fear paralyzes. We’ve got to live. And living means risk taking. So get on that plane, drive that car, get out into our world. And wherever you find yourself “be there”.